The Summer of Our Discontent (12 page)

Rachel glared at her. “Batter up.”

June walked up to bat next. Faith handed her the bat and asked, “Baby, do you know how to hit?”

June shook her head and held the bat awkwardly.

“If you want, you’ll learn today. I can teach you to smack the yellow off that ball.”

June grinned up at her. “Okay.”

“I’m going to get behind you and put my hands on yours. We’ll swing together a few times, then when you’re ready, you can hit on your own.”

Rachel watched as Faith took special care showing the girl how to hold and swing the bat. Together they hit three balls, but when June tried it alone, she missed five in a row. Disappointment showed on her face, and Rachel watched as she tried to hand the bat back to Faith. Down on her knees, Faith was eye-to-eye with June. Rachel couldn’t hear what was being said, but June nodded often, and when she faced Rachel, there was fire in her eyes. After about ten tries, she managed to put the ball out into left field. Runners advanced, and Sophie came up to bat.

“Tell me you know how to hit,” Faith said with a grin, but Sophie shook her head to the contrary. “I cannot believe my sister has never taught you to play softball. Come on, best buddy, let’s do this.”

No one really kept score. Some of the girls were pretty good players, and some weren’t, so it turned into more of a game of who could hit the farthest. Once everyone on Faith’s team had batted, they switched out, and Rachel’s team did its best to knock the fuzz off the tennis balls they were playing with.

Once everyone had a few tries, Faith began to taunt Rachel. “Can you hit a tennis ball? They’re smaller than softballs, you know. If you want, I can run down to the lake and get a boat paddle for you. That might make it easier.”

“Hit it, Momma,” Kaycee belted out from where she stood in centerfield.

“Can you pitch?” Rachel asked Faith with a teasing grin.

Faith moved back to the mound. “You’re about to find out. Get ready for the heat ’cause I’m bringing it.” Faith waved off the catcher, and the ball she threw almost wedged into the mesh of the backstop.

“That was a gentle spring breeze, baby. Now give me the fire,” Rachel said as she tossed it back. There were oohs and
ahhs
as Rachel waited for the right pitch and released a satisfied grunt when the ball sailed deep into the outfield. “Can you feel it?” Rachel yelled with a pelvic thrust for emphasis.

“Chauvin,
unsportswomanlike
and just plain gross, knock it off,” Keely said with a smile from her safe haven behind the backstop.

Faith was just getting warmed up and opened the bag of balls next to the mound. “You got lucky, Chauvin. Now feel the burn.”

Rachel put about ten balls into the field and had girls scrambling after them. She held the bat out to Faith. “Your turn.” She returned the favor, and the balls that flew over the plate were on fire. Faith sent a bunch into the field, and the girls who chased them begged to go to the lake to the disappointment of the two supposed adults determined to outdo each other.

They followed the horde that barreled toward the water. “You aren’t all that bad, Chauvin, and I have to tell you that you’re a pretty righteous centerfielder for the Michaud Blues.”

“I’d like to say the same about your ability as shortstop, but you suck.” Rachel threw back her head and laughed when Faith nearly tripped over her own feet. “You’re a great ball player, get that lip off the ground.”

“You’re a complete shit,” Faith said lowly and laughed.

“What did you say to June that motivated her so?”

Faith shrugged. “I told her we’re only losers when we give up.”

“Is that your creed?”

“Yes, that’s why this truce thing is so difficult for me,” Faith said with a grin. “Are you going swimming?” she asked as they came to the lake.

“No.” Rachel walked onto the dock and called for Kaycee as she pulled a can of sunscreen from her pocket.

Faith followed her, but before Rachel could even raise the can to spray Kaycee, Faith shoved her in. When Rachel broke the surface, her lips were a thin red line.

“You looked hot,” Faith said with a shrug. “I was only helping.”

“If my phone would’ve been in my pocket, I’d break something off of you, Leblanc.”

Faith pursed her lips. “I honestly didn’t consider that. Should I just go ahead and throw myself in now or wait for you to come up here and do it?”

“Spray Kaycee with the sunscreen first, and wait with her for a few minutes while it dries. Then I want you to hike down to where those cypress trees are growing out of the water and throw yourself in there. But pick a really
snakey
spot first.” Rachel untangled her ball cap from her ponytail and threw it up on the dock.

Sophie swam up to her with a beaming grin. “Will you race me to the float thing?”

“Yep, but if I win, I get to bite one of your feet,” Rachel said, holding her thumb above her head, mimicking a shark fin.

“Aunt Faith always wants to bite me, too. What’s with the biting people?” Sophie swam off with a good head start.

“I hate being white,” Kaycee said as she stood with her arms out waiting to dry.

“I hate being brilliant, kiddo.” Faith sat next to where Kaycee stood. “No one respects me for my body. They all want me for my mind.”

Kaycee looked at her in consternation. “Sophie’s right, you really are crazy, Ms. Aunt Faith.”

“And you are exactly like your mother.” Faith grinned and said, “You’re dry,” just before she shoved Kaycee off the dock.

Chapter Sixteen

“I have run marathons, but I swear I’ve never been this tired.” Faith slumped down in her chair, firelight reflecting on her face.

Rachel nodded. “It takes a lot out of you just standing around in the heat watching kids. I have more stamina after spending all day working in the yard.”

Faith watched her eat ice cream from a small paper cup. She took small but rapid bites, her gaze riveted to the cup as though she feared a rogue raccoon would burst out of the brush and snatch it from her grasp. “Is it that good? You look like you’re on the verge of—”

“Yes, it’s cold, sweet, creamy, and…oh, it’s gone.” Rachel’s head fell back against the chair. She looked like she needed a cigarette. “Out here, ice cream is the closest thing to sex.”

Faith pulled her phone from her pocket, looked at it for a second, then tapped out a message before she dropped it into her lap. She glanced over at Keely and the group of chaperones who were having an animated conversation. “I think Simone Landry would be the most likely to jump the fence in that group. She too stares at you a lot.”

“Are you trying to get me to play that game again, or are you sizing up prey?”

“I’m bored, humor me.”

Rachel looked at the group. “It wouldn’t be Simone, she’s a hose beast. She’s dating Nolan Pike, and he’s tight with Chance, so he’s always meeting us for coffee. Simone is psycho jealous and hates when Nolan hangs around with us. That’s hostility in her eyes, not lust.” She grinned. “I can’t imagine you’d get that confused because you get those looks a lot from women, too. Your front door should revolve with the way you move women in and out so fast.”

Faith’s smile was wry. “I just haven’t found my princess. It seems my glass slipper is still empty.”

“Maybe because you keep trying it on all the wrong women. Dogs don’t wear shoes, you know.”

Faith laughed. “Bite me. Okay, who’s your pick?” she said as she looked at her phone.

“Prospective princess?” Rachel asked with a smile.

“Oh, no,” Faith shook her head. “There’s no hope of that, we’re just casual. Tell me your pick.”

“There are no real considerations in that group. If I absolutely had to choose, I’d say Keely because she went from baby doll to butch on us the first day in half a second. Define casual.”

“No-strings-attached sex, it’s that simple. Still not gonna tell me about Lisa, are you?”

“Nope, ancient history. I have no desire to relive it in the telling.” Rachel cocked her head to the side and pointed to the phone. “Does she know it’s just casual?”

“It was her idea.”

“So she just walked up to you and said, ‘Hey, let’s just roll in the hay and not consider anything else’?” Rachel asked. “Or did you start off dating and realize that it just wasn’t going to work?”

Faith glanced at her phone and dropped it into her lap again. “Our thing is a matter of convenience. We both admitted physical attraction, but to consider anything beyond that would complicate things. She has plans for her life that I’d interfere with, and I’m…just not interested in anything else with her.”

Rachel picked up a piece of pine straw and toyed with it. “Being intimate with her like that doesn’t make you wonder about what could be?”

“No, not at all. It’s just sex.” She grinned. “Vibrators don’t provide the thrill I crave.”

Rachel broke the straw in half and looked away. “They don’t have feelings to hurt, either. I have a hard time wrapping my head around giving that part of myself to someone and not feeling the least bit of emotion.”

Faith tucked the phone into her pocket. “Who are you dating now?”

“Nobody.”

“That’s not what Kaycee says,” Faith said with a laugh. “You should’ve seen her imitating ‘Ms. Kim’ kissing you.”

Rachel’s jaw fell slack.

“Oh, yeah, she told me that she went to get a glass of water late one night when Ms. Kim came a-
callin
’.”

“That child.” Rachel’s head fell back against the chair. “I have no privacy whatsoever. Kim and I are just friends. Unfortunately, I had to make that point clear recently.”

“What happened? It was casual, and she decided to get serious?”

“I don’t do casual. There’s gotta be a connection there, something more than just sex.” Rachel shrugged. “I’m just not wired that way, but sometimes, I wish I was. When I meet a woman that interests me enough that I want to go out with her, I’m not interested in seeing anyone else.”

“So if you met two interesting women at the same time, you wouldn’t date both to figure out which one was the right one?”

Rachel shook her head. “That never happens to me.”

“You need to get out more. Go to the bars in Lafayette, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans. There’s social networking sites all over for lesbians if you don’t like bars.”

“I have a daughter, a young nosy one. I have to be really careful who I bring around her. Sophie lives with you now, too. How’re you gonna handle that when you decide to bring a ‘casual’ woman home?”

“That hasn’t been an issue yet.” Faith looked over at Sophie and sighed. “I think my carousing days are coming to an end. I’d like to have something meaningful, and I know I go about finding that the wrong way. Sex comes first, and details are ironed out later, but I always find wrinkles.”

“I’ve got news for you. There are always gonna be wrinkles, you just have to decide which ones you can live with.”

“So you’re the type who is looking for a wife in all prospective princesses. What is it you’re looking for in a suitor?”

Rachel thought for a moment as she stared at the fire. “A partner, someone I can confide in, someone who will meet me in the middle. I want my home to be a safe haven where I can retreat, where every little thing doesn’t cause an argument. Laughter,” Rachel said somberly.

“I take it
it
wasn’t that way with
Cyn
.”